第27章

"I don't know," answered Tom, resolutely, "but we've got to find out.Come onThey advanced toward the dark clump of trees and low bushes.Therewas no need to be especially cautious in regard to being silent, as their feet made little, if any, sound on the deep grass.And, as Tom walked in advance, now and then flashing his light, Mr.Damon suddenly caught him by the coat.

"What is it?" asked the young inventor.

"Look! Just over the top of that hill, where the moon shines.Don't you see an automobile outlined?"Tom looked quickly.

"I do," he answered."There's a road from here, just the other side of those trees, to that hill.The auto must have gone that way.Well, there's no use in trying to follow it now.Whoever it was has gotten away.""But they may have left some one behind, Tom.We'd better look in and around those trees.""I suppose we had, but I don't believe we'll find anything.I can pretty nearly guess, now, what it was.""What?" asked Mr.Damon.

"Well, some chauffeur was out for a ride in his employer's car without permission.He got here, had an accident--maybe some friends he took for a ride were hurt and they called for help.The chauffeur knew if there was any publicity he'd be blamed, and so he got away as quickly as he could.Guess the accident--if that's what it was--didn't amount to much, or they couldn't have run the car off.We've had our trouble for our pains.""Well, maybe you're right, Tom Swift, butt all the same, I'd like to have a look among those trees," said Mr.Damon.

"Oh.we'll look, all right," assented Tom, "but I doubt if we find anything."And he was right.They walked in and about the little grove, flashing the light at intervals, but beyond marks of auto wheels in the dust of the road, which was near the clump of maples, there was nothing to indicate what had happened.

"Though there was some sort of fracas," declared Tom."Look where the dust is trampled down.There were several men here, perhaps skylarking, or perhaps it was a fight.""Some one must have been hurt, or they wouldn't have cried for help,"said Mr.Damon.

"Well, that's so.But perhaps it was some one not used to riding in autos, and he may have imagined the accident was worse than it was, and called for help involuntarily.There is no evidence of any serious accident having happened--no spots of blood, at any rate," and Tom laughed at his own grimness."It was a new car, too, or at least one with new tires on.""How do you know?" asked Mr.Damon.

"Tell by the plain marks of the rubber tread in the dust," was the answer."Look," and Tom pointed to the wheel marks in the focus of his electric lamp."It's a new tire, too, with square protuberances on the tread instead of the usual diamond or round ones.A new kind of tire, all right."He and Mr.Damon remained for a few minutes looking about the place whence had come the calls for help, and then the eccentric man remarked:

"Well, as long as we can't do anything here, Tom, we might as well travel on; what do you say?""I agree with you.There isn't any use in staying.We'll get the Air Scout fixed up and travel back home.But this was something queer," mused Tom."I hope it doesn't turn out later that a crime has been committed, and we didn't show enough gumption to prevent it.""We couldn't prevent it.We heard the cries as soon as we landed." "Yes, but if we had rushed over at once we might have caught thefellows.But I guess it was only a slight accident, and some one was more frightened than hurt.We'll have to let it go at that."But the more he thought about it the more Tom Swift thought there was something queer in that weird cry for help on the lonely meadow in the darkness of the night.